Okay, you just drove by a rental property of interest and would like to contact the owner. What do you do?
Foremost, you don’t stop and start walking around the property hoping to locate someone that will give you the owner’s name. Owners don’t appreciate it when their onsite managers or tenants are approached by outsiders asking questions about the property unless it might lead to a possible rental of one of the units.
In other words, unless you plan to rent a unit, don’t nose around the property. It can easily alienate an owner and subsequently jeopardize any further contact.
The best way to obtain the owner’s name is simply to jot down the property address and look up the name in the county tax record. If you’re a real estate agent you probably have computer access through your local MLS. If not, ask a local title company to look it up for you. If that fails, call or visit the tax accessor’s office and obtain the name yourself.
Sometimes there is a phone number along with an address, and sometimes there’s just an address. Either way, whether you call or write, you’re willingness not to alarm the owner’s onsite manager or tenants will go a long way with the owner and undoubtedly get you heard.
